by wes

I went for Sunday lunch at a friend’s house in the suburbs recently. Picture the scene. Beautiful deck overlooking the neighbourhood, enormous salads, platters of meat, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double garage and a manicured garden large enough to host a small music festival.

The suburban dream!

Then we ran out of ice.

A seemingly simple problem that required me to find the car keys, drive a few blocks, find parking, go into a shop, buy the ice, get back into the car and drive home.

All this for some bloody frozen water.

At home, I would have taken the lift downstairs, walked across the road, grabbed a bag of ice and been back before anyone noticed I was gone.

This little expedition got me thinking about something I often discuss with friends looking to buy property.

What matters more, the house you live in or the neighbourhood you live in?

CONVENIENCE IS KING

I have come to realise that how often I use something is directly proportional to how easy it is to access.

Living in the city, I can pop out for coffee, wander down to the shops, jump on my bike and cycle to the Botanical Gardens or Rushcutters Bay, or enjoy the beautiful parks and pools around us.

I do these things because they are EASY.

If every coffee, swim or spontaneous dinner required a car journey, parking and some advance planning, I can assure you I would do considerably less of all three.

I have friends who live in beautiful suburban homes who hardly ever venture into the city. Not because they don’t enjoy it, but because it becomes a whole production. Suddenly a casual afternoon out requires planning, driving, parking and the inevitable discussion about who is going to drive home.

The more complicated something is, the less likely we are to do it.

Of course, some people love the suburbs. They want a big garden, a double garage, a pool and enough room for three children, two dogs and a collection of unused exercise equipment.

I get it. Well, mostly.

For me, I would rather have the city as my backyard than spend my weekends mowing one.

SIZE DOES MATTER, BUT SO DOES LOCATION

When friends ask me for advice on buying property, I often ask them a fairly simple question.

Are you buying a bigger house or a better lifestyle?

For the price of a two-bedroom apartment in central Sydney, you could potentially buy a considerably larger home further out. More bedrooms, more bathrooms, a garden and parking.

On paper, it seems like a no-brainer.

But what are you giving up?

Would you rather have a fourth bedroom that gets used twice a year or be able to walk to your favourite restaurant? Is a large garden more important than having beautiful parks on your doorstep? Do you want a bigger living room or a neighbourhood where you actually spend more time out living?

There is no correct answer. We all have different priorities and our needs change throughout our lives.

The important thing is knowing what YOUR priorities are before you start looking.

YOU CAN CHANGE THE KITCHEN, NOT THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

This is where I think buyers often get distracted.

We walk into a property and fall in love with the beautiful kitchen, fancy bathroom, gorgeous tiles and perfectly styled furniture.

Or we dismiss a perfectly good apartment because the kitchen looks like it hasn’t been touched since 1983.

I have news for you. Kitchens can be replaced!

Bathrooms can be renovated, floors changed, walls painted and ugly light fittings sent to the tip where they belong.

What you cannot do is pick up your apartment and move it closer to the beach.

You also cannot easily change the size of your bedrooms, the natural light, the outlook or the basic layout of a property. Some things are simply too expensive or impossible to fix.

This is why I always encourage people to look beyond the finishes and consider the things that cannot be changed.

A beautiful kitchen is lovely, but a good neighbourhood with excellent coffee, restaurants, parks and transport can have a much bigger impact on your everyday life.

And you can always save up for that marble benchtop later.

WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY BUYING?

Obviously, if money is no object, buy the perfect house in the perfect neighbourhood and have someone deliver the ice.

For the rest of us, there is a budget and compromises need to be made.

I am not suggesting location should always win over size. If you work from home, have children or love entertaining, space might be far more important to you. A badly laid-out apartment in a fabulous neighbourhood can still be a miserable place to live.

But I do think we should spend less time obsessing over kitchens and bathrooms and more time thinking about how we actually want to live.

Walk around the neighbourhood. Have a coffee. Visit the local shops. See what the area feels like on a Sunday morning. Imagine your ordinary Tuesday, not just the fabulous dinner party you might host twice a year.

Because ultimately, you are not just buying the four walls you live in. You are buying access to everything around them.

My philosophy is simple. Prioritise what you cannot change and improve what you can.

A house can be renovated over time, but a neighbourhood cannot.

And if buying a slightly smaller apartment means I can walk to the shops for ice rather than organise a small expedition, I know exactly where my money is going.